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Ceremonial Drum with Male Figure Holding Figurative Superstructure Seated on Elephant

19th century, inventoried 1884

Not on view

Such elaborately carved drums were integrated in the shrine of the Maloango (King of Loango) as an altar in his residence. On festive occasions they were displayed and used as a visual point of reference for oral traditions related by a priest. The tripartite composition features a figure seated on an elephant at the base supporting an open box-like structure and culminates in a drum at the summit. Esteemed for their size and strength, elephants also figure in regional oral histories as guides that led pioneering founding ancestors through the forest.

Ceremonial Drum with Male Figure Holding Figurative Superstructure Seated on Elephant, Wood, pigment, hide, Kongo peoples — This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Title: Ceremonial Drum with Male Figure Holding Figurative Superstructure Seated on Elephant

Date: 19th century, inventoried 1884

Geography: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Loango Coast; Republic of the Congo; Cabinda, Angola

Culture: Kongo peoples

Medium: Wood, pigment, hide

Dimensions: H. 44 1/2 in. (113.1 cm), W. 8 7/8 in. (23 cm), D. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm)

Classification: Wood-Musical Instruments

Credit Line: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1884.109.15

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The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Met

The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.